The Man Who Ate Everything


Jeffrey Steingarten - 1997
    He succeeded at all but the last: Steingarten is "fairly sure that God meant the color blue mainly for food that has gone bad." In this impassioned, mouth-watering, and outrageously funny book, Steingarten devotes the same Zen-like discipline and gluttonous curiosity to practically everything that anyone anywhere has ever called "dinner." Follow Steingarten as he jets off to sample choucroute in Alsace, hand-massaged beef in Japan, and the mother of all ice creams in Sicily. Sweat with him as he tries to re-create the perfect sourdough, bottle his own mineral water, and drop excess poundage at a luxury spa. Join him as he mounts a heroic--and hilarious--defense of salt, sugar, and fat (though he has some nice things to say about Olestra). Stuffed with offbeat erudition and recipes so good they ought to be illegal, The Man Who Ate Everything is a gift for anyone who loves food.

The Spice Merchant's Daughter: Recipes and Simple Spice Blends for the American Kitchen


Christina Arokiasamy - 2008
    The exotic scent of spices: rich, alluring, and almost magical. A scent that would sometimes overpower the freshness in the air and sometimes subtly mingle with it to create a tantalizing bouquet. A scent that would always bring me back to my childhood.Growing up enveloped in the aromas of her mother’s spice stall in Kuala Lumpur, Christina Arokiasamy developed an artist’s sense of how to combine and use spices in traditional and innovative ways. In The Spice Merchant’s Daughter, she shares her family’s spice secrets, expertly guiding and enticing home cooks to enliven their repertoires.Christina weaves evocative stories of cooking at her mother’s side with real-world practical advice gleaned not only from working in professional kitchens but also from tackling the nightly task of getting a home-cooked dinner on the table for her family of four using American ingredients. She shows how easy it is to build layers of complex flavor to create 100 tempting Southeast Asian–inspired recipes, including Lemon Pepper Wings, Spicy Beef Salad, Steamed Snapper with Tamarind-Ginger Sauce, Cardamom Butter Rice with Sultanas, and Coconut Flan Infused with Star Anise. She unlocks the transformative power of homemade spice rubs, curry pastes, and sauces, as well as chutneys and pickles, enabling home cooks to bring new depth and dimension to their favorite dishes. With lush photography and a chapter identifying and defining key pantry ingredients and aromatics, The Spice Merchant’s Daughter both inspires and empowers, awakening the senses and unlocking the alluring world of spices.

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors


Lizzie Collingham - 2005
    An authoritative history of the foods of India, complete with delicious recipes, ranges from the imperial kitchen of the Mughal invader Babur to the smoky cookhouse of the British Raj and includes information on the influence of various food traditions on the evolution of Indian specialties.

Tasty Latest and Greatest: Everything You Want to Cook Right Now (an Official Tasty Cookbook)


Tasty - 2017
    You've been mesmerized by their top down recipe videos, but there's still something about having a tangible album of edible deliciousness at your fingertips. Enter: Tasty Latest & Greatest. This cookbook is just that: 80+ winning recipes, anointed by fans like you, that have risen to the top of the heap, powered by likes and comments and shares and smiles and full bellies. They represent how you're cooking today. Whether it's a trend-driven dish like a pastel glitter-bombed unicorn cake or a classic like lasagna, every recipe has staying power. Now you can deliver on the promise of a great dish whenever the urge strikes. Get ready--your cooking is about to go viral.

Tom Kerridge’s Best Ever Dishes


Tom Kerridge - 2014
    I like getting the balance of taste and texture just right, using familiar ingredients and creating big, intense flavours. Now, I hope you'll use my recipes to make some best ever dishes of your own.' Tom KerridgeAs the most down-to-earth but high-flying chef on the food scene, Tom Kerridge has become known for his big flavours and beautifully crafted yet accessible food. And with more than 100 of his favourite recipes, Best Ever Dishes brings this spectacular cooking to the home kitchen.Tom starts with classics we all love such as tomato soup, chicken Kiev and rice pudding (plus a few new ideas of his own), then refines and elevates them to the best version that he has ever tasted. Give the Kerridge twist to a simple lasagne, and you'll discover that every mouthful is a taste explosion. Put a special spin on a chocolate tart, and you'll transform it into an exceptional, melt-in-the-mouth pud of the gods. With stunning photography by Cristian Barnett, this book really will change the way you cook.

Blood Royal: A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris


Eric Jager - 2014
    On a chilly November night in 1407, Louis of Orleans was murdered by a band of masked men. The crime stunned and paralyzed France since Louis had often ruled in place of his brother King Charles, who had gone mad. As panic seized Paris, an investigation began. In charge was the Provost of Paris, Guillaume de Tignonville, the city's chief law enforcement officer -- and one of history's first detectives. As de Tignonville began to investigate, he realized that his hunt for the truth was much more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. A rich portrait of a distant world, Blood Royal is a gripping story of conspiracy, crime and an increasingly desperate hunt for the truth. And in Guillaume de Tignonville, we have an unforgettable detective for the ages, a classic gumshoe for a cobblestoned era.

Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol


Mallory O'Meara - 2021
    Skinny martinis. Vodka sodas with lime. These are the cocktails that come in sleek-stemmed glasses, bright colors and fruity flavors—these are the Girly Drinks.From the earliest days of civilization, alcohol has been at the center of social rituals and cultures worldwide. But when exactly did drinking become a gendered act? And why have bars long been considered “places for men” when, without women, they might not even exist?With whip-smart insight and boundless curiosity, Girly Drinks unveils an entire untold history of the female distillers, drinkers and brewers who have played a vital role in the creation and consumption of alcohol, from ancient Sumerian beer goddess Ninkasi to iconic 1920s bartender Ada Coleman. Filling a crucial gap in culinary history, O’Meara dismantles the long-standing patriarchal traditions at the heart of these very drinking cultures, in the hope that readers everywhere can look to each celebrated woman in this book—and proudly have what she’s having.

Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600


Judith M. Bennett - 1996
    By 1600, most brewers in London were male, and men also dominated the trade in many towns and villages. This book asks how, when, and why brewing ceased to be women's work andinstead became a job for men. Employing a wide variety of sources and methods, Bennett vividly describes how brewsters (that is, female brewers) gradually left the trade. She also offers a compelling account of the endurance of patriarchy during this time of dramatic change.

Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals


Lindsay-Jean Hard - 2018
    Lindsay-Jean is a master of efficiency and we’re inspired to follow her lead!”  —Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, cofounders of Food52  In 85 innovative recipes, Lindsay-Jean Hard—who writes the “Cooking with Scraps” column for Food52—shows just how delicious and surprising the all-too-often-discarded parts of food can be, transforming what might be considered trash into culinary treasure.  Here’s how to put those seeds, stems, tops, rinds to good use for more delicious (and more frugal) cooking: Carrot greens—bright, fresh, and packed with flavor—make a zesty pesto. Water from canned beans behaves just like egg whites, perfect for vegan mayonnaise that even non-vegans will love. And serve broccoli stems olive-oil poached on lemony ricotta toast. It’s pure food genius, all the while critically reducing waste one dish at a time. “I love this book because the recipes matter...show[ing] us how to utilize the whole plant, to the betterment of our palate, our pocketbook, and our place.” —Eugenia Bone, author of The Kitchen Ecosystem  “Packed with smart, approachable recipes for beautiful food made with ingredients that you used to throw in the compost bin!” —Cara Mangini, author of The Vegetable Butcher

The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, The Power Behind Five English Thrones


Thomas Asbridge - 2014
    

A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around the World


Don George - 2010
    It can be a gift that enables a traveler to survive, a doorway into the heart of a tribe, or a thread that weaves an indelible tie; it can be awful or ambrosial - and sometimes both at the same time. Celebrate the riches and revelations of food with this 38-course feast of true tales set around the world.

On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome, with Love and Pasta


Jen Lin-Liu - 2008
    Feasting her way through an Italian honeymoon, Jen Lin-Liu was struck by culinary echoes of the delicacies she ate and cooked back in China, where she’d lived for more than a decade. Who really invented the noodle? she wondered, like many before her. But also: How had food and culture moved along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route linking Asia to Europe—and what could still be felt of those long-ago migrations? With her new husband’s blessing, she set out to discover the connections, both historical and personal, eating a path through western China and on into Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, and across the Mediterranean. The journey takes Lin-Liu into the private kitchens where the headscarves come off and women not only knead and simmer but also confess and confide. The thin rounds of dough stuffed with meat that are dumplings in Beijing evolve into manti in Turkey—their tiny size the measure of a bride’s worth—and end as tortellini in Italy. And as she stirs and samples, listening to the women talk about their lives and longings, Lin-Liu gains a new appreciation of her own marriage, learning to savor the sweetness of love freely chosen.

The Oxford Companion to Beer


Garrett Oliver - 2011
    After water and tea, it is the most popular drink in the world, and it is at the center of an over $450 billion industry. With the emergence of craft brewing and homebrewing, beer is experiencing a renaissance that is expanding the reach of the beer culture even further, bringing the art of brewing into homes and widening the interest in beer as an important cultural item.The Oxford Companion to Beer is the first reference work to fully investigate the history and vast scope of beer, from the agricultural makeup of various beers to the technical elements of the brewing process, local effects of brewing on regions around the world, and social and political implications of sharing a beer. Entries not only define terms such as "spent grain" and "wort," but give fascinating details about how these and other ingredients affect a beer's taste, texture, and popularity. Cultural entries on such topics as drinking songs or beer gardens offer vivid accounts of how our drinking traditions have shifted through history, and how these traditions vary in different parts of the world, from Japan to Mexico, New Zealand, and Brazil, among many other countries. The pioneers of beer-making are the subjects of biographical entries; the legacies they left behind, in the forms of the world's most popular beers and breweries, are recurrent themes throughout the book. Collectively the Companion has over 1,100 entries--written by 150 of the world's most prominent beer experts--as well as a foreword by renowned chef Tom Colicchio (star of television's Top Chef), thorough appendices, conversion tables, images throughout, and an index. Flipping through the book, readers will discover everything from why beer was first taxed to how drinkers throughout history have overcome temperance movements and how an "ale conner" determined the quality of a beer in the thirteenth century. (It involved sitting in a puddle of beer.)The Companion is comprehensive, unprecedented, and of great value to anyone who has ever had a curiosity or appetite for beer.

Crumb: The Baking Book


Ruby Tandoh - 2014
    A joyful, passionate baking book that focuses on flavour, not frippery, and rediscovers the simple pleasures of baking.Crumb is about flavour, first and foremost – a celebration of the simple joy of baking. Ruby’s recipes delight in new tastes and combinations, as well as the rediscovery of old favourites, to create food that is exciting without ceremony or pretence.In a delicious blend of practicality and creativity, Ruby encourages novices and seasoned bakers alike to roll up their sleeves and bake – even if they don’t have the proper equipment or know-how. From Lemon & Marzipan Cupcakes and Rye Caraway Bagels, Rose & Burnt Honey Florentines, Croissants and Custard Doughnuts, to Butternut Squash & Mozzarella Tartlets and Sticky Toffee Pudding, these are recipes that will quickly become some of your best loved. With writing to be savoured as much as the recipes, tips and techniques to guide you and plenty of ideas for variations, this is baking book to be inspired by, to read and cherish.

Bring It!: Tried and True Recipes for Potlucks and Casual Entertaining


Ali Rosen - 2018
    But today's potlucks are essentially outsourced dinner parties, which make gathering around a shared table a cinch. Inside Bring It!, you will find dozens of impressive-looking recipes that come together easily, and are perfect for carrying to any occasion. Author Ali Rosen has put a long career in the food world to use, drawing on chef and restaurant secrets for easy dishes that will have friends begging for the recipe. Must-have dishes include: · Pimento Cheese and Crab Dip · Snap Pea Salad with Parmesan and Bacon · Pistachio and Anchovy Pasta · Short Ribs with Quick Pickled Shallots · S'mores Bars Each recipe includes a note called "How to Bring It," for make-ahead, reheating, and transport instructions. Flavors are designed for maximum impact, but won't take hours to cook, or require special ingredients. Have dinner with the neighbors, sit down to a picnic in the park, or bring a dish to the school luncheon. They come together easily, hold well, and travel beautifully. They'll have you rethinking the potluck.